The Escher Twist

by Jane Langton

Book Overview

Cambridge, Massachusetts, is home to Homer and Mary Kelly, Harvard University, the Mount Auburn Cemetery, and Leonard Sheldrake. Leonard, Homer's friend, often compares the many-faceted Cambridge to a favorite engraving, filled with strange power and wonder, by the twentieth-century Dutch artist Maurits Escher. So he is thrilled when Cambridge hosts an Escher exhibit. There, Leonard is smitten by a mysterious woman in a green coat named Frieda who...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670030678
• ISBN13: 9780670030675
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 242 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Based on the drawings of M C Escher

The Escher Twist is lots of fun for anyone who enjoys the drawings of M C Escher. This Boston-based murder mystery is illustrated throughout by reproductions of his art work, including those persistent ants on their twisted band of paper. Like Escher's parade of ants on the Möbius strip, the characters march around and around and end up back where they started. Like Escher's "Birds and Fish", The plot has repeating patterns that change subtly over time until they turn into something quite different. The images in Escher's "Reflecting Sphere" become Doppelgänger. (How many women in green coats? How many shy Leonards?) Most dramatically, there are the stark contrasts of dark and light: Here is love and hate; joy and tragedy; kindness and malevolence. The husband and wife detective pair of Homer and Mary Kelly struggle to relate the people in torn pieces of family photographs. Which is up and which down? Who is parent and who child? And just as the puzzle pieces begin to fit, the pattern breaks up again like a surreal dream. By the way, just in case you rushed to read the book without checking its cover, count carefully how many pillars there are in the pagoda.

A Lovely Math Mystery

First off, I have never read Jane Langton before. I picked this book up from the New Mysteries section of my local library, based entirely on its intriguing cover (yes, I judged the book based on its cover).Having never read Jane Langton before, I knew only what the back of the book stated. After reading it, I am ready to rush out and find more of her books.I give this book five stars because it grabbed me. And it grabbed me right away. The characters were fascinating from the get-go, especially the way they were introduced. I have never been to Cambridge, but I felt that Langton painted the town with vibrant yet surreal colors.In addition, this book contained a lot of math concepts that I did not know about before, but were presented in such a way as to not seem confusing or above my head. In fact, I had to make my own Moebius Strip just to see for myself how wonderful they are. The theme was well carried in this book. Big thumbs up! A mystery like no other I have read. Cannot wait to read another one.

Not her best effort

I am a big fan of Jane Langton's, having read all but two of her earlier Homer Kelly mysteries (no longer in print). I have to say that while this book is better than most mysteries being sold today, it is not great in comparison with her earlier efforts.In this entry, Homer & Mary Kelly set out to help a man, Leonard Sheldrake, find a woman with whom he has fallen in love (at first sight while at an Escher exhibition in a museum). The woman is not easy to find as she is attempting to avoid one of her relatives, a woman set on vengeance for the death of her baby.The plot of this book is not as complicated as others by Ms. Langton but still was sometimes a bit confusing for me, particularly with regards to some torn up photographs found by Leonard. I had to read the paragraphs describing the pictures a couple of times to get the images straight in my mind and even then I am not for sure that I had it all correct.But, when all is said and done, this is a good book and I would recommend it to anyone, particularly if they are already familiar with the series.

"The Escher Twist" Winds Around an Artful Plot

It doesn't take long to figure out that Jane Langton's use of Escher prints provides creative foreshadowing in "The Escher Twist." Just like the Escher prints used throughout the book, you're not sure if you are seeing what you think you are seeing. The characters in this delightful story ramble through the plot at a relaxed, though never dull, pace. The main characters' child-like views of the world are just innocent enough to be charming without drifting over the "Dumb and Dumber" fault line. "The Escher Twist" winds down to a tidy and satisfying conclusion.

Optical dis-illusions galore!

Whether one is artistically literate or not, it is entirely possibly to appreciate the marvelous etchings of M.(Maurits) C. Escher. I feel privileged to own two large prints, several calendars and a book or two of Escher prints or drawings. Of course, you can easily drive yourself batty by staring at them too much, or maybe it's that one should be a bit loopy in the first place in order to really be enchanted by the illusive possibilities created by this extremely gifted artist.Having discovered the books of another extremely gifted artist, Jane Langton-at the time of her first Homer Kelly book-I feel doubly privileged. Therefore I can and do happily admit to a certain amount of prejudice in favor of this book, combining two of my favorite things. Ms. Langton writes not only with great skill, but great erudition, wit, and just plain wonderful word-play. One small note of caution, however: the reader should approach this book with the sense of whimsicality fully engaged, as it very like a trip to Wonderland, replete with White Queens and peacocks and other such frivoloties.There is indeed a mystery to be solved, including that of 'love at first sight'. It does happen, to be sure, although the resolution is not always as happy as that first 'rush' insinuates. In this book, the reader will need every smidgen of loopiness possible to cope with not only the wonderful word-play and the marvelous reproductions of Escher's etchings (as described in his own words) but also the slightly bizarre events which entangle and draw the various characters into the plot.Leonard Sheldrake, a professor at Harvard, briefly meets the elusive Frieda at an Escher exhibit. Before he can further the acquaintance, which suddenly assumes a major importance in his life, Frieda disappears, and he is left with only the mental picture of her that he carries in his mind, and the tiny tid-bit of information that is her first name. No last name, no address, no clues at all. Into this maelstrom wander Homer and Mary Kelly, also professors at Harvard, who engage themselves to assist Leonard in his search.There is an unexpectedly happy ending, but not without some very skillful weaving together of the various threads that had been so laboriously tangled in the previous pages. Just as in an Escher drawing, nothing is extraneous, here, too, this law prevails. No clue is too small to be relevant. I believe that anyone could enjoy this book, but persons who enjoy puzzles or word-games or the multi-dimensional world of M. C. Escher will find an extra level of enjoyment within its pages.